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Monday, 24 September 2018

The Day I Discovered Christine Feehan's Dark Series...

I remember my discovery of the Dark Series by Christine Feehan so clearly.

I was in my second year of university. Ebooks were just beginning to emerge and a lot of the American paranormal romance authors were not available to buy in UK bookstores as they didn't have UK publishing deals.

The paranormal romance market here was far behind the US market but, to be fair, the paranormal romance market was relatively shiny and new. That was a problem for the 18/19-year-old me, for I’d become utterly captivated by paranormal romance the moment I read one.

(I blame Sherrilyn Kenyon for initiating the fixation, but that’s a different post.)

I had two options available to me to feed the beast: Amazon (which took ages) or ebooks.

Now, ebooks really were just emerging at this point (I think it was about 2004). E-reader devices, to my knowledge, were non-existent. However, that is no barrier to a very bored late-teenaged girl with nothing to read when it’s pouring rain outside.

I remember it so clearly… I was lying in the room I shared with my then boyfriend (aka the professor, who is funnily enough still around). He was working on an assignment, there was nothing on TV that I wanted to watch and, as I said, I had nothing to hand that I fancied reading and I did not want to brave the torrential rain for a bookshop run.

(Yep, not even for books. Seriously, have you seen the rain in Edinburgh when it really lets go? Holy monkey balls!)

So, being a highly motivated and resourceful bookworm, I grabbed my laptop and started searching and I found those new-fangled things called ebooks.

I found a site called ereader.com (now gone 😞) and I jumped through all the sign up hoops.

I pinched the professors little pda (anyone remember those?!), downloaded the MS reader app to it, and purchased a book called Dark Desire by Christine Feehan.

The cover was atrocious (oh my eyes!) but the synopsis sounded good, the sample chapter even better, and it was only a few quid when converted from dollars to pounds so I gave it a go.

And I was hooked!

I was swept away into this world of Carpathians and I wanted more.

It was just so… Intense.

This concept of the fated mate. The other half of your soul. The battle to survive as individuals and as a species… I discovered I'd read book 2, so I immediately purchased book 1 (from ereader.com again because I wasn’t waiting!) and when I loved that just as much as Dark Desire, I practically emptied my bank account purchasing all the paperback copies up to the most recent release (which I think at the time was Dark Secret) on Amazon.

They arrived in a really big box, my first - but not my last - delivery of an embarrassingly big box of books, and I went on a complete binge.

I’ve read The Dark Series ever since.

Yes the first pile of books were a bit formulaic – and you really notice that when you’re reading one after the other without pause - but it was a formula that I loved so it didn’t bother me.

Over time, I loved how the world evolved and that the books have become more complex… Although the whole Carpathian language thing really gets on my nerves.

(It doesn't need it to be there! It's jarring and annoying and just stop already!)

There was a time I fell out of love with the series and that would be the fault of the De la Cruz brothers! (Well, except Zach. I loved him.)

However, I came back to it at Dark Slayer (Ivory and Razvan will always be favourites) and got caught up on all the books I'd missed.

I’ve fallen a couple of books behind again but I know that I’ll catch up.

I don’t care that the series is almost at the 30 bookmark: They still amuse, therefore I still read.

What inspired my need to ramble on my history with the Dark Series?

Well, it occurred to me that I’ve been reading some book series for 15 years or so, just shy of half my life, and I know that many others are in the exact same boat.

Bookish journeys and the stories of how people discovered an author or a series or even a particular book interest me so I thought that maybe sharing some of my bookish loves and stories would interest others.

It’s a book blog, right?!

So, what are your thoughts on the Dark Series? Love it? Hate it? How did you discover it?

3 comments:

Ah, the days before ereaders aka The Dark Days. LOL Amazing how far it's come in a relatively short time.

15 years is a looong time to stick with a series. And my first thought was that I hadn't read any series for that long, but that's not quite true. It's been roughly 18 years since I first read Outlander and while I'm not current with the series I haven't given up on it. And as far as I know Gabaldon is still writing it (even though there are YEARS between releases).

And now to admit that I've never read the Dark Series. Guess it's time for me to head to GoodReads and start checking it out!!

Love that you've been reading this series for 15 years! A series like this for me is Robin Hobb's Realms of the Elderlings Series (which is a fantasy series actually made up of a bunch of smaller series). I've been reading it for 24 years, and plan to keep reading as long as she keeps writing!

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